Big Brother 11 Recap: Final Head Of Household Part 2

I just noticed tonight that during the opening credits of Big Brother, while each evicted houseguest is shown exiting the BB house, Chima’s exit is a shot of her entering into the diary room. I don’t know why but that’s funny to me.

Tonight Julie started the episode by announcing that all three remaining contestants will make it to finale night. This is a new little twist as usually the last eviction takes place prior to the finale. We also learned that after the final part of the HoH competition takes place live, the last evicted houseguest will join the jury to question the houseguests then. This means that on Sunday night, rather than getting to see Michele and the final evicted contestant enter the jury house followed by the jurors questioning the final two, we’re getting a highlights episode. Anyone else planning to cancel their live feeds now? Usually the post-jury questioning discussion among the final two contestants is the last big thing to be seen on the feeds. Instead, I’m predicting the feeds to be filled with Kevin assuring Natalie he’ll take her to the end, Jordan not really talking game with Natalie but assuring Kevin that she’ll take him if she wins and Kevin doing the same with her. No one will really know what Jordan or Kevin are thinking because we don’t get to see the DR stuff on the feeds.

We got to see some of the footage of the endurance competition and while most of that consisted of the houseguests walking on the log, clutching their key as rain poured down on them, the producers cut that up by inserting some of the aftermath of Michele’s eviction. Kevin stated in the diary room that he needs to win the final HoH so he can take Jordan to the end. It seems he’s aware that up against Natalie, he doesn’t stand the best chance at winning (the people in the jury house might disagree but he obviously doesn’t know that).

Natalie said that she has hatred toward Michele and that every time she hears the girl’s voice she boils up inside. Something about this coming from Natalie was hilarious to me. We got to see her celebrating the fact that “evil is gone”… because Michele’s deceit makes her “evil” but I guess Natalie’s is justifiable. The post “evil” comment was followed by scenes of Natalie talking smack about Michele during the log competition, throwing in a few comments about how happy Michele will be to spend time alone with Jeff in the jury house. Jordan knew Natalie was just trying to psych her out and admitted in the diary room that she knows Michele’s happily married and then added with a giggle that she knows Jeff likes her so she has nothing to worry about. While I can’t pose a strong argument as to why Jordan’s a better Big Brother player than Kevin or Natalie, the girl really is as cute as a bucket full of kittens.

As the endurance competition went on, the seasons changed from fall to winter and back to fall with rain, leaves and snow being thrown at them as they hung onto their keys. At one point Natalie slipped but she hung onto her key and righted herself. The log turned forward, backward and occasionally jerked to a stop. This went on for hours and eventually Kevin convinced Jordan that if she shook her body she’d warm herself up. He admitted that he told her to do this to distract her and it appeared to work, though it could’ve just been coldness and fatigue that caused Jordan to fall. When the log started moving again, Jordan couldn’t get her footing and she fell. After she went inside, Natalie and Kevin celebrated and started talking about ending the competition now that Jordan’s out of the running.

We got a flashback of a conversation between Natalie and Kevin wherein they agreed Natalie would throw the first part of the HoH competition to Kevin and go head to head with Jordan in part two, which they’re assuming is a “knowledge” competition. Kevin reaffirmed the plan, swearing up and down that he’d take her to the end if he wins the final HoH competition. After insisting that she could beat him in the competition (because it wouldn’t be like Natalie to give up without first announcing that she could win), she dropped. Kevin admitted in the diary room that while he gave his word to Natalie to take her to the end, his word means nothing. I think I’m falling in love with Kevin. And I have to say that him admitting in the diary room what he’s doing and why he’s ok with doing it without trying to justify his lies as anything other than what they are (lies.) is what makes all the difference between him and Natalie.

After Julie explained what was happening with the final competition on finale night to the houseguests, we got to see Jeff’s entrance to the jury house. Both Russell and Jessie said they hoped Jeff would walk through the door so naturally they were happy when he did. Jeff tricked them though, yelling out an effeminate “Hey!” when he came into the house, causing Lydia, Jeff and Russell to think it was Kevin. After some laughs at the big revelation, Jeff admitted that it was Kevin that stabbed him in the back. Jessie revealed that Natalie was lying about her age. It seems like everyone in the jury house has soured to Natalie and Russell and Lydia both agreed that they’d be happy if Kevin won. At this point I think if Kevin goes to the final two with either of the girls, he’s a lock to win the whole thing.

Julie sat down with four houseguests from former seasons, Janelle, Danielle, Mike “Boogie” and “Evel Dick.” We got to see some of their best moments, including Boogie’s “All Star” win and Janelle’s famous “Bye, bye bitches!” response during season six (classic.) Danielle said Natalie’s playing the best game for lying really well and getting Kevin to do her dirty work. I have to disagree with her on this as it seems like the jury is on to Natalie’s scheming and might be looking at Kevin as the more likable of the two. Then again, Danielle did admit that she hoped a woman would win this year, so it could be wishful thinking on her part. Janelle said the worst move of the season was Jeff getting rid of Russell. Boogie said the best move of the game was Jeff using the coup d’etat to get rid of Jessie and the lie that Natalie and Kevin used to convince Jeff to get Russell out. Dick agreed that the lie changed the game.

Boogie agreed that Chima should’ve been kicked out but then he went on to defend Chima on some level, saying people should give her a break because it’s not easy being in that house. I’m sure that’s true but the rest of the houseguests managed to make it through the season without throwing a hissy fit and getting kicked out, so whatever. Dick said she should jump off a bridge after, adding that she lost sight of the prize at the end. I’m sure there are plenty of people who auditioned for BB and didn’t make it who would agree with him there. More Chima-bashing included Danielle calling her a brat and Dick saying her getting herself kicked out was the stupidest move of the game. Dick, Janelle and Boogie all think Kevin’s going to win. And that wrapped up this little random segment of the episode.

Part 2 of the final Head of Household competition played out live. Both contestants had to remember the order of the heads of household from week one to the present. They had to select a volleyball with a houseguest name on it and roll it up a platform aiming for the hole for that week. Each houseguest had two minutes to complete the task. Natalie went first and had some trouble getting the ball to land in the right hole. When a ball landed in the wrong hole, she seemed to forget to move on to the next week and ended up messing up the order. She finished with two seconds to spare and Julie revealed to the audience that she got five answers correct.

After the commercial break, Jordan took her turn. Feed reports were stating that while the houseguests had a chance to practice the ball-rolling thing last night, Jordan performed better at the task than Natalie did. Would that help her tonight with the added twist of needing to remember the correct order of HoH’s? She had some trouble with landing her volley balls in the holes at first but she got the hang of it after that and managed to get 9 of 10, ringing her bell at the :13 second mark, not only beating Natalie’s score but beating her time as well.

Before Julie announced the winner of the second part to the houseguests, she told the viewers that America gets a vote in this season’s finale (thanks to Chima’s early exit). Since we won’t know who the final two are until the finale, voters can vote for three different scenarios, depending on which combination of contestants are remaining after the final eviction. I like that they’re doing this rather than just having a straight up vote for a winner situation as I’m sure people’s opinions might vary based on which two houseguests make it to the end.

Kevin looked shocked when Julie revealed that Jordan won part two of the competition. Jordan’s response to the news was to rub her armpit and announce that she was “sweatin’.” When Julie asked Natalie how she felt about her fate being left in the hands of Kevin or Jordan, Natalie answered by ignoring the question and talking about how she knew the whole order of the things and messed up when the balls went into the wrong holes. Blah, blah, blah, Natalie.

At this point, I’m not sure which will be a better outcome on finale night, Jordan winning the last HoH competition and evicting Natalie or Kevin winning and evicting Natalie. Either way, a Natalie eviction would be glorious. If it came down to Kevin and Jordan in the final two, I’d want Kevin to win but I’d still be happy for Jordan for getting as far as she did, especially with winning tonight’s crucial HoH competition, which means in order for Natalie to make it to the end, someone has to take her. While it seems like Kevin is confident that he’ll have to evict Natalie if he has any chance at winning the half-million dollar prize, Natalie has proven herself more than capable of weaseling her way out of an eviction. We’ll have to wait until Tuesday to find out if she can do it one last time.